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The Commoner,
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11 communications to
THE COMMONER, Lincoln, Nth.
Tho attention of Senators Foraker and Dick
is caUed to the fact that Tho Hague tribunal is
just now at leisure.
A lot of republican congressmen will never
forgivo Mr. Bakqr for being honest when he say3
ho is. opposed to graft and passes.
0
D. Barnhart of Monument, Colo., desires to
secure a copy of McGuffcy's Fifth Reader. Any
ono having a copy to sell should address him.
Congressman Baker's continued remonstrances
against "graft" are beginning to strike a number
of mombers on the majority sido as altogether
too porsonal.
Judge Parkor's friends say thai they "will not
have to apologize for hlra. Perhaps not, but are
they propared to work their explanation depart
ments overtime?
In viow of tho many exposures of ofilcial cor
ruption at Washington thero is nothing in tho law
of supply and demand if tho price of whitewash
does not tako an upward turn.
The man who expects justice to the people to
emanate from tho men chosen by managers of
sol fish interests, would expect to gather grapes
from thorns and figs from thistles.
A number of senators who owe their election
and allegiance to corporations are awfully
'shocked at the discovery that Senator Smoot owes
his election and alloglanco to tho Mormon church.
, A number of republicanidally newspapers that
complimented Knox upon his assertion that tho
administration would not run amuck, aro now
wondering if tho print paper trust also heard him
Bay It.
- "Corruption is eating the heart out of Ko
rea,"' says a writer who has investigated. If that
kind of eating ever mado dyspeptics, what a
magnificent army of invalids this country could
muster.
Eugene 0. May field, known throughout tho
west to all newspaper readers as "Rex M.," will
soon begin the publication of a juvenile magazine
in Omaha. Mr. May field has endeared himself to
thousands .of children by his inimitablo animal
stories and other juvenile tales, and will doubt
less merit their loyal and hearty support in his
magazine venture.
The Commoner.
Congressman Baker continues to incur he
enmity of republicans by constantly twitting
them nlxrat facts. The .average con
gressman, dislikes very much to bo hampereu uy
anything like facts.
Mr. Foraker's anxiety to emasculate the anti
trust law may be taken as an indication that Mr.
Foraker desires to pry Senator Aldrich loose
from his position as chief of the trust represen
tatives In congress.
Talking about purity in politics and asking
Matt Quay to manage the campaign is not much'
different from posing as a civil service reformer
and then appointing Payne to the positon cr
postmaster general.
Some of the papers that are anxious" to molco
a record for forecasting Judge Parkor's views,
are supposing, all sorts of different and antagon
izing opinions', feeling sure that one of their
guesses will be correct.
Senator Burton seems to have made the mis
take of selling his official influence to Lawyer.
Burton. This appears, to be much more dangerous
than selling postofllce appointments or renting
buildings to the government.
Mr. Schwab went into court in New York
tho other day and swore off ?100,000 of taxable
property, claiming residence in Pennsylvania.
This is an indication that Mr. Schwab has not yet
floated his bundle of shipbuilding trust stock, s'
The president's letter to the Fanama canal
commissioners sounds wonderfully like a cam
paign document, but it would take better if its
sentiments were not confronted with appoint
ments like that of Payne in the postal service.
Walter Wellman says that the American pub
lishers are in search of a great novel, it this be
true, tho republican campaign book this year ought
to satisfy them, for if it attempts to giveauy
reasons why tho republican party should suc
ceed, it will bo a great book of fiction.
Some of tho eminent bolting democrats who
sneer ingly alluded to Mr. Bryan's lack of wealth
in 189G are pointing with pride to the statement
that Judge Parker is a poor man, and offering it
as proof that ho is honest. A bolting democrat's
logic is crooked enough to lend crimps to that ct
a republican.
According to the Brooklyn Eagle, "Mr. Bry
an's fate hangs In tho balance in Nebraska."
"Important Nebraska democrats," it says, "have
reported that ho is already beaten, the democracy
of his state refusing to stand for the reaffirmation
of the Kansas City platform." If this is a speci
men of the accuracy of the Eagle's information on
other subjects, its readers would better not rely
too much upon its columns. So far no county in
Nebraska has repudiated the Kansas City plat
form, and when the state convention is held "it
will be found that Nebraska is in line. Nebraska
some years ago abandoned platforms of the New
York variety.
Tho average life of a battleship is fifteen
years, whfch is considered about thirteen years
and eleven months too long by the eminent finan
ciers who engage in the manufacture of armor
Plato as a sido line when hot securing some tariif
legislation from a republican congress.
Tho return to sanity necessarily implies that
tho person returning has been insane. Possibly
Mr Cleveland is trying to bo charitable aai
thinks it more generous to say that tho demo
cratic party was mentally deranged when it le
pudiated his administration than to say that the
party knew what it was doing.
Secretary Taft traveled from Washington to
Chicago, recently to tell why the Filipinos should
w v ii S,ot be granted self-government.
icoaiy Every reason he advanced was
o. Wonderful advanced in the case of the Gu
Similarity, bans and yet the. Cubans seem
to be doing fully as well as our
forbears did when they first tackled the job It
is interesting to note, too, that Secretary Tafr'a
reasons for not granting independence to the
Filipinos are curiously like those advanced by
George III. and Lord North when the matter of
colonial independence was under consideration.
With very slight pharaphrasing, King Georce's
reasons for not granting independence to trie
American colonies could be used as the adminis
tration's reasons for governing the Filipinos with
out their consent.
The Nebraska Independent (Lincoln! reoniin
a phase of the New York customs" hout Le that
If Not Fraud Commoner omitted to men
Not raud tion last week. When the Stand
Then ard Oil bank bought the old on.
What is it7 toms house it not. only did Tf
4i . pay casa to the EovermWf f
the property, but its certificnrT n?i ??1 for
made out for $50,000 lessti ar i ri ?Lde?08lt wus
price. As the property was , 5 ee,d Duobo
the title thereto jmZJ paid
with the F?1
VOLUME 4, NUMBER 15,
not taxable, therefore, although the "bank gets an
enormous rental from tho government for the use
of the building, and has the free use of the monev
that the government ostensibly received for the
property, the bank escapes paying city and stato
taxes on the property, amounting to close upcu
$100,000 a year. , And yet republican congressmen
object when democrats" stand up in congress anl
apply the term "fraud" to this transaction.
'Twould bo
Condensed
Indeed.
Every now and .then the St. Louis Globe-Democrat
inadvertantly gives utterance to a great
trutn. recently the Globe-Democrat
remarked editorially that
"reform in Missouri can be con
densed into one word 'republi
canism'." Citizens of Mlssourf
who lived through the republican administration
that afflicted that state Immediately after t'10
close of the war will cheerfully admit that any re
form undertaken by republicanism will be won
derfully condensed.. In fact, it would be con
densed to an infinitesimal degree.
Trending on
Dangerous
Ground.
The Milwaukee News continues to trench upon
lese majeste -with a courage that is little short
oi' sublime, though terribly reck
less. The News declares that
it really doesn't make any dif
ference when congress adjourns
as lone as Rtiosevelt 1r in ti-.n
White house, because "if there are any laws that
need to be enacted, he may issue an 'executive
order' to meet the emergency." Turn it which
ever way you will, this is clearly a case of trea
son. Either it is treason to the republican con
.gress, or it is treason to the strenuous executive
who occasionally pauses in the work of perform
ing his constitutional duties to perform the duties
imposed upon congress and tho courts.
The present war between Russia and Japan is
known as the Russo-Japanese war, and a writer
- x. . m the Philadelphia Press points
is A Here Any out an interesting fact conned d
Significance with wars in which the names
inNeumes? the contending nations "wcie
hyphenated to distinguish them.
This writer shows that invariably tho name of
the country "before the hyphen has come out leser.
The Austro-Prussian war was lost by Austiia.
The Franco-Prussian war -was lost by France. The
Chino-Japanese war was lost by China, and the
Spanish-American war was lost by Spain. Those
, who believe in signs and omens will see in tho
designation of "Russo-Japanese war" defeat for
Russia. Others, however, will probably wait to
see vhat facts develop.
Wonders
of
Statistics.
Referring to the news that the "Mississippi
river has shortened its course twenty miles by
cutting off a bend, the New
York World says that "this
brings the north ' and south
nearer together." This is a
cheerful vlaw t.o rn.1r nf tho mat
ter, and it recalls Mark Twain's wonderful sta
tistics of the Mississippi. Mark figured out, tak
ing the average annual shortening of the river
for ten years that about 2,000 B. C. the Missis
sippi river was 11,000 miles long and stuck out
over the Gulf of Mexico like a. fishing-rod. He
figured further that about the year 3,000 A. D.
the Mississippi would have been so shortened that
Memphis and Minneapolis would be like one cio.
and the Gulf of Mexico merely a huge reservoir
for St. Louis. .-
The evil of mo.dorn commercialism is well il
lustrated in what' Governor Murphy of New Jer
c ii. 'M. sev says D,s state should do to
selling Their attract more Dusiness from tho
State's Honor predatory trusts. Governor
For Gold. Murphy says: "Other states
are bidding sharply with New
Jersey for corporation business, and if New Jer
sey is to retain its business in this respect it must
nieet the reasonable demands of those who desire
to incorporate under its laws." This statement
comes in the face of the fact that the New Jersey
legislature has relieved tho directors of corpora
tions from criminal prosecution on account of
paying unearned dividends. This permits them
to deceive would-be investors by declaring divi
dends and paying them out of the proceeds o
stock sales instead of earnings, 'thus inducing in
vestments. This is. not a bit better than selling
gold bricks or green goods. And yet Governor
Murphy thinks that New Jersey is not lenient
enough with the corporations. ' Would he Issue
them state licenses' permitting them to rob banMt
hurglarizo houses and forgo Checks?
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